Breaking bad habits is a critical part to higher performance, productivity, earning more and living a better life.

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Breaking Bad Habits:
Leveraging Willpower
to Boost Productivity
Presented at a Chamber of
Commerce and Industry in
Singapore
XtraMile Solutions www.1xtramile.com T 65 9674 1088 E admin@1xtramile.com
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Presented by:
Gideon F. For-mukwai, CEM, MA

2. Introduction
Our brains form habits for very strategic reasons. Once habits have been formed, the brain can
concentrate on other more important executive like safety. Before a new habit is formed, the brain
works extra hard to encode the new procedures so that it does not have to work extra hard each time
a routine function is performed.
The set back with this approach is that once these habits are formed they are hard to break. They have a
double edge sword impact on your productivity. They can either boost or undermine your effectiveness.
This is why it merits a profound understanding and appreciation today.
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3. # 1 Seek a New Picture
Start by identifying a new picture or reality you want to create. Pictures convey stronger emotions and
they are easier to remember. The more vivid your picture, the better the outcome. Pictures stir our
imagination, emotions and our desire more than words. Ideally, the picture(s) should be kept within
sight.
Ideas:
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# 2
Ink it and Internalise
When you write it down, it becomes a lot more potent and powerful. There is is a saying that, “the palest
ink is far more retentive than the best memory. By writing down it becomes more tangible. It also
enables you to chew over it and internalize it.
This fortifies your mental picture and at the same time the emotional urge. When all the 5 senses work
in consonance, the new reality become more pervasive and inescapable.
! Ideas:
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4. # 3
Tracking and Triggers
Keeping a daily score enables you to see patterns and gaps you never thought existed. That is the power
of recording and keeping track. Studies have shown that people who record their daily calorie
consumptions, loose weight faster than those who do not keep a food journal.
On the other hand, when you observe your routines carefully, you can notice triggers. Triggers are the
things, times, people, places or circumstances that perpetuate certain actions that have become habits
like smoking. If you can replace triggers with other physical activities, you can beat or kill them.
! Ideas:
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# 4
Untie Old Knots
Old knots are very difficult to undo. It takes willpower to untie old knots. One of the best ways to
strengthen your willpower over the long run is by meditating. It increases the gray matter area of our
brain. This part of the brain enhances our decision-making and emotional stability. It takes great
determination to untie an old knot, but once you do it, you will gain more confidence to do more.
Meditation has become very popular today with many Western CEOs practicing it daily.
! Ideas:
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5. # 5
Peer Accountability
It has been found that having a pal or peer who can hold you accountable in a gentle but responsible way,
can go a long way in breaking bad habits. Do you have a peer who is supportive yet careful enough to
hold you accountable? The peer must not be erratic or too critical.
Rather the job of the peer is like that of a coach who serves to remind, support and encourage for peak
or higher performance.
Too much pressure, the person may snap. Too little pressure, they may thing you are a nanny or baby
sitter. That is your role. You are a peer.
! Ideas:
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Changing a habit is not an overnight project. It takes a lot of time and patience. Along the way, there will
be slip ups and missteps. The trick is to understand that missteps do not imply failure. Misteps simply
mean that you you need to re-arm and re-try.
As long as there is progress, keep on moving. Sooner than later the new habits will become ingrained and
you ‘d be well on your way to a turn of fortunes.
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Conclusion

6. ADDITIONAL NOTES
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7. RANDOM IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS
1. You can increase your willpower by meditating daily. According to Standford Willpower Scientist, Dr
Kelly McGonigal, meditation is one of the top ways to increase willpower. “Practicing mindfulness
meditation for a few minutes each day can actually boost willpower by building up grey matter in
areas of the brain that regulate emotions and govern decision-making.
2. Keystone habits create a chain reaction; changing and rearranging your other habits as you integrate
the habit into your life. According to Duhigg, Keystone habits influence how we work, eat, play, live,
spend, and communicate, and they start a process that, over time, transforms everything.
3. Keystone habits give you “numerous, small senses of victory”.
Look out for habits and routines that provide you with a pattern of small wins. According to Duhigg,
“small wins have enormous power, an influence disproportionate to the accomplishments of the
victories themselves”, and these are “places where momentum can start to build”. Small wins “fuel
transformative changes by leveraging tiny advantages into patterns that convince [you] that bigger
achievements are within reach”
4. Hold yourself publicly accountable.
Anyone can tell the world they’re going to get up early from now on. But, if that person has a team of
supporters behind them, whom they regularly update, they are more likely to stick with their new
habit during times when they are establishing their new habit and motivation is running low.
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8. About the Presenter
Gideon F. For-mukwai, MA, CEM
Gideon is an award-winning speaker with over a decade of international experience from Asia, Middle
East, Africa, Europe and North America. He has presented training programmes to executives from
organisations such as Oracle, Siemens, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Dell Computers,
Shell Eastern Petroleum, National University of Singapore, DBS Bank, Gillette
and more.
He is the founder of XtraMile Solutions, founded in 2004 in Singapore. It is
dedicated training services provider. XtraMile and its associates have directly
trained over 15,550 professionals and executives around the world.
Gideon ‘s forte lies in is his ability to communicate complex issues with simple practical and
metaphorical narratives that keep audiences engaged. He combines his journalistic research know-how,
compelling storytelling, and academic curiosity in finding and sharing new ideas that participants
worldwide.
He a former Senior Officer and Instructor with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), Gideon is a
graduate from MA programme in Journalism from the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of
Nevada, Reno.
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